How has your race/ethnicity informed your experience with living with HIV?

Brandan's Answer

Being young and Caucasian, many people are surprised when I tell them I’m HIV Positive. They look at me and say something like “But you don’t look sick and you’re young and white?” referring of course to the increase of infections among young black men. It’s another stigma all positive people have to face now.

Also I have noticed that services are easier to access and people seem to want to “help” me before helping someone of another ethnicity, which makes me sick. It’s another form of prejudice, bigotry and ignorance.

This is one of the many reasons I do what I do, going to schools, talking to students, stopping the stigma.